1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for searching for information of cases similar to a search target medical image, and to a recording medium in which a program causing a computer to execute the method is recorded.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to support interpretation of medical images by physicians and diagnosis carried out by clinicians based on medical images, similar case search systems have been proposed. In such systems, medical images, information including interpretation results and diagnosis results pertinent to the images, and the like are stored in databases, and the databases are searched for images similar to medical images as targets of image interpretation/diagnosis and for information such as results of image interpretation/diagnosis pertinent to the similar images.
For example, a system is known wherein an image database storing image data sets representing images of subjects is searched for similar image data sets having regions whose pictorial characteristic is similar to an image data set inputted as a search target and a result of the search is outputted (see U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20040003001, for example).
In addition, a similar medical image search apparatus having a similar medical image database is known (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-173748, for example). The similar medical image database relates to each other the types of operations for judgment processing used at the time of detection of shadows of foci included in medical images, a characteristic quantity of the shadows of foci found in the judgment processing, and the medical images. The similar medical image search apparatus searches the similar medical image database based on a result of the same judgment processing carried out on one of a plurality of interpretation target images.
In medical imaging, lesions are identified in many cases by obtaining a plurality of images with different imaging methods. For example, in the case of an examination using MRI, the same body part as a target of examination is imaged according to imaging protocols such as T1 weighted imaging (T1WI), T2 weighted imaging (T2WI), and FLAIR imaging. In the case where any one of the images obtained by the respective imaging protocols has a region that seems to be a lesion, judgment is made as to whether the region represents a lesion by comparison of the region between the images.
In the case where the similar case search system or the like described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20040003001 or Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-173748 is applied to identification of such a lesion, not all images obtained by the different methods described above are used, since the system searches for similar cases by using only one image as a search target. Furthermore, in the case of a search using an image obtained by one imaging method, many similar cases may be extracted and screening for truly effective cases is necessary.